Holy fuckin' smokes. I was in used kids, just looking for some new records. As always, I was thinking deep New Orleans (which used kids usually never has), or old ass country, or some gospel soul (Soul Stirrers, (without Sam Cooke in the seventies, which is rad) which they did have, thank you used kids), when I was like what the fuck is this playing up in here, and I used to never want to ask because I would seem a music fool, but I've just come to accept that I am a fool so I was like "What the fuck is this?", because it sounded like some deep soul, maybe not quite some southern soul, but at least something old and sweet that I had probably never heard of. Dan D. looked me straight in my eye and said "New Black Keys". Shit. It was side D of the new record, with those slow grooves on it. I am twenty dollars poorer, and happy about it. They have set the bar waaaayyyyyyy higher for Ohio. They are winning. This record is fucking great. Especially those C and D sides. Northern soul revival, without the irony, played from the heart.

it sounded like some deep soul, maybe not quite some southern soul, but at least something old and sweet that I had probably never heard of.

That's one of the aspects of this album that continues to blow me away. It sounds like it's from another time and still maintains a modern edge somehow. The soul and motown influences burn through in a very genuine way. That combined with all the straight up ass-kicking throughout make this an album that I will always love. Now that I've heard it, I know that this is the album I've always wanted to hear from them.

I like the disc a lot more than I thought I would. Actually, I had pretty much written off the idea of ever being all that interested in anyone's blues rock album. I don't care how dirty and authentic it gets, the idea makes me yawn so hard I look like Steven Tyler by the time my lips come back together.

But there are a few real gems on it, and their delivery and the strength of the songs seal the deal. "Next Girl" is a classic. Had it been done originally by any black blues legend or guitarist with the last name King (excluding Kerry) it would be right up there with any blues standard. But it's more than that really, it's not so standard. It's more blues the way the Rolling Stones thought they were playing the blues. But it's not really that either. The Black Keys are tighter than the Stones. It stands on it's own and it doesn't sound tired or rehashed.

Yeah, those cats know how to do it. Just add a good bass player, and they would really smoke. Of course, then they wouldn't be as "hip".

As much as I love these guys, I still contend that if you are overdubbing bass on your albums, then just hire a fucking bass player already. Not that they don't sound great live, they really do. It just would be better with a tasteful simple bass line. It did on the album...

73,000 first week. #3 in us, 2000 copies behind the exile on main street reissue... in regards to "hiring a fucking bass player" they did, and a keyboard player, leon michels who runs truth and soul records, plays in the el michels affair, lee fields and the expressions... and the bass player is Nick Movshon who is also in the el michels affair, anitbalas and played on all the amy winehouse / mark ronson records...

Tell me about your album cover. It’s a really different aesthetic for the Black Keys — no images, just words.That was all my brother Michael. He’s a graphic designer. We all agreed the record cover should be text-based because we couldn’t think of any image that fit. Michael’s done every one of our record covers and every one of our T-shirts. He used to work for Abercrombie & Fitch until they laid him off like a bunch of fucking idiots. He’s probably gonna get nominated for a Grammy for all this shit! He got a job that was twice as good at American Eagle within a week. I actually really like stories like that — when a company fucks up.